Irish Immigration to Canada

The Irish began immigrating to North America in the 1820s, when the lack of jobs and poverty forced them to seek better opportunities elsewhere after the end of the major European wars. When the Europeans could finally stop depending on the Irish for food during war, the investment in Irish agricultural products reduced and the boom was over. After an economic boom, there comes a bust and unemployment was the result. Two-thirds of the people of Ireland depended on potato harvests as a main source of income and, more importantly, food. Then between the years of 1845 and 1847, a terrible disease struck the potato crops. The plague left acre after acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot. The failure of the potato yields caused the prices of food to rise rapidly. With no income coming from potato harvests, families dependent on potato crops could not afford to pay rent to their dominantly British and Protestant landlords and were evicted only to be crowded into disease-infested workhouses. Peasants who were desperate for food found themselves eating the rotten potatoes only to develop and spread horrible diseases. ¡§Entire villages were quickly homeless, starving, and diagnosed with either cholera or typhus.¡¨(Interpreting¡K,online) The lack of food and increased incidents of death forced incredible numbers of people to leave Ireland for some place which offered more suitable living conditions. Some landlords paid for the emigration of their tenants because it made more economic sense to rid farms of residents who were not paying their rent. Nevertheless, emigration did not prove to be an antidote for the Famine. The ships were overcrowded and by the time they reached their destination, approximately one third of its passengers had been lost to disease, hunger and other complications. However, many passengers did survive the journey and, as a result, approximately ¡§1.5 million Irish people immigrated to North...

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...When the Irish immigrated to the United States in 1850 after the great potatoes famine in Ireland, the Irish natives were poor and without money, although prejudice did not seem to affect the Irish they were subjected to prejudice and segregation. Because the Irish fit in with the white race upon entry to the United States they were not discriminated against like the African Americans and Asian immigrants who were often denied entry into the United States because of their color and ethnic characteristics. However the Irish were poor and forced to live in the filthiest neighborhoods and alleys most lived in basement or apartments that were not properly ventilated and damaged by sewage.
The social status of the Irish forced them to take job that were often dangerous like building railroad, these people were forced to take these jobs because no employer would give an Irish man or women a decent job. At this time in history cites needed hard manual laborers because the Irish were unskilled and poor they worked for the lower wages other ethnic groups would not. People were threatened by the Irish because of their hard working ethnics and because of their catholic religion signs for employment would often say “Irish need not apply.” (Hy Kinsella, 1996-2010.para3.) Catholic Churches were often burnt down and riots occurred protesting...

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The Irish Potato Famine
During the 1800's, the Irish population relied heavily on the farming and eating of potatoes grown on land that was not owned by them. The land they cultivated and grew their crops on was owned by strangers. In 1845, a catastrophic blight struck potato crops all over Ireland. The sudden wilting of all potato crops lasted five years and brought about starvation, disease, and death. This also brought massive immigration to North America. These immigrants from Ireland came not only to Ellis Island in New York, but also to Gross Isle near Quebec, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. They settled on the east coast of the United States and in the British North America, which became modern day Canada. With them, the Irish brought their heritage, customs, and religious backgrounds.
The potato, a crop that is very nutritious and easy to grow in the wet, Irish soil crowed out the oats and wheat in the Irish diet. More than three million Irish men, women, and children ate nothing but potatoes in the years before the potato famine. As Ireland's population tripled in size in the years before the famine, many people were driven to the mountains and bogs in search of land. Many also left their homeland in search of new land in...

...Running head: IRISHIMMIGRATION IN 1850’S 1
IrishImmigration in 1850’s
Dorothy Mathews
Eth/125
March 7, 2010
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IRISHIMMIGRATION IN 1850’S 2
IrishImmigration in 1850’s
The line of ancestry that I came from is the Irish and English and Dutch. I am not certain about the dates, but I am pretty sure that they emigrated around the years 1850 to 1870. The Irish left the island of Ireland because of the potato famine that overtook their country. Even though undefined, Irish emigrants faced persecution from other foreigners because they were under educated and some were Irish Catholics, and also from little knowledge of what industrialization was.
The greatest number of emigrants was from around 1850 through the late...

...what could be obtained in the United States and those without land began to seriously consider emigrating to the New World.
In 1816 around 6,000 Irish people sailed for America. Within two years this figure had doubled. Early arrivals were recruited to build canals. In 1818 over 3,000 Irish labourers were employed on the Erie Canal. By 1826 around 5,000 were working on four separate canal projects. One journalist commented: "There are several kinds of power working at the fabric of the republic - water-power, steam-power and Irish-power. The last works hardest of all."
In October 1845 a serious blight began among the Irish potatoes, ruining about three-quarters of the country's crop. This was a disaster as over four million people in Ireland depended on the potato as their chief food. The blight returned in 1846 and over the next year an estimated 350,000 people died of starvation and an outbreak of typhus that ravaged a weaken population. Despite good potato crops over the next four years, people continued to die and in 1851 the Census Commissioners estimated that nearly a million people had died during the Irish Famine. The British administration and absentee landlords were blamed for this catastrophe by the Irish people.
The Irish Famine stimulated a desire to emigrate. The figures for this period show a dramatic increase in Irish people arriving in the...

...﻿Immigration Report on Irish Immigrants
Many immigrants came to the United States for multiple reasons. For example, some people fled from Europe to escape religious persecution before the 19th century. Also, others pursued for economic opportunities, adventure, or even possibly a new life in America. The first wave of immigrants who came to the United
Reasons that they had to leave Ireland.
“The newness of the North American continent and the vitality of its institutions inspired the immigrants to better their lot.” (Watts, 14)
“Many Irish had developed an aversion as victims of a cruel sharecropping system in Ireland. Once in the United States, therefore, these first immigrants spurned the vast agricultural resources of their adopted country and instead clustered in the cities.” (Watts, 15)
“The final blow came in 1845 when a fungus disease blanketed Europe’s potato fields, causing a continental famine that claimed 2.5 million lives…Potatoes rotted in the ground and in storage bins while starvation reached epidemic proportions.” (Watts, 23-24)
“The English devised a political compromise in 1921, splitting Ireland in two along the lines that still hold… The 1921 split caused great and lasting resentment in Ireland and among Irish Americans. Conflict over the English presence in the island continued to fuel emigration from Ireland…” (Watts, 28)
Three hundred thousand had already immigrated in...

...agricultural economy to hit rock bottom. It also caused many deaths among the Irish through starvation. To avoid death and start a new life, many Irish had to flee to The United States and Canada. Though many died while traveling across the Atlantic, thousands made it to land. With no money and no place to live, the Irish were about to make a big change in North America. Bringing only their religion and agricultural experience with them, the Irish fleeing the famine increased the power of the Catholic Church in Canada, catalyzed the effects of the industrial revolution, and strengthened the economy through the creation of thousands of jobs.
To understand how the Irish famine brought change to Canadian society, one must first understand the state Canada was in prior to the famine. The fact is, before famine hit Ireland, the Irish had already been steadily migrating to Canada. After the war of 1812, Canada was looking to increase its population. The British government did this with grants to the poor people of Cork, Ireland. These grants would allow the Irish to come over to Canada with a plot of land waiting for them. Canada wanted to increase their population density, specifically throughout Upper and Lower Canada, to form a strong backbone for a militia, incase...

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